RPLog:Recon Gone Wrong
The Toprawa Withdrawl is proceeding apace. Completely calm, without incident. That, in itself, is likely to have the New Republic fleet on edge. After all, the Galactic Empire may prefer a sledgehammer to a stiletto, but they're not above trying to "sneak one by" by any stretch. So there is quite understandable commotion when sensors indicate an abnormality deep behind the NR lines, not along any known space lanes or debris fields. An abnormality which is moving closer and closer to the fleet's preferred hyperspace lane. "Here we go again..." says Talia Andorn over her commlines, checking on her flightmates as they go out to try to get a more complete picture of what is going on out around the New Republic's preferred lanes of egress from this planet. "If I didnae ken any better, I would have t' say that the Empire's trying t' pull essentially the same dodge we tried with them before they got t' Bilbringi, just after Nak Shimmor." Checking out where the cap ships said that the anomoly was, Talia and her flight get closer and closer to the target area. "I just hope that this isn't another wild Gundark chase..." says one of her squadmates, and inside her cockpit, Talia nods, checking her sensors again. It's possible that the anomaly is an asteroid or comet, albeit a wildly abnormal one. Wouldn't that be a treat, being the one to discover such a thing that the greatest minds hadn't been able to predict? It's more likely still that it's a destroyed craft from the recent battles making the rounds on the orbit fate has declared for it. That analysis was sufficient at first, right until the anomaly burst into electric life. It also stopped moving. As the A-wing closes, the computers start identifying an Imperial sensor signature. "Comms silent, kids; we've got Imperials about." Talia sighs a little bit, giving her sensors a more careful examination, so that she might get a better idea of what she'll be dealing with as she approaches... Her flight, likewise, cuts out the chatter, a more complete sensor sweep going over where the anomoly is coming from. "Lasers off safety; Four, feed all this to the Independence via secure comm-line." Oddly enough, though, Talia's lips show a wide smile. The Imperial-coded blip starts moving perpendicular to the flight of four. It's clearly not even some malfunctioning space debris, as changes in the flight's formation find it changing course to keep from being boxed in. The chase is on. As Talia closes in on the 'debris', it takes a life of its own, and Talia shakes her head a bit. "Recon element." says she, before checking for any of the Imperial's friends. "Break off into flight pairs. One, Two, check the area about us, try to find any more contacts that might be out there. Four, take my back, make sure I dinnae have any other Imperials coming up on me while I take this joker." She speeds up, leaving the rest of her flight to ensure her safety while she tries to ensure that this Imperial will not be leaving the space around Toprawa alive. The A-wings break off to canvas the area for more "anomalies" that may be lying "cold" (engines off, sensors passive, life support to the minimum necessary, etc). The active bogie more or less keeps its distance, though the blip does come a little bit deeper into the A-wing's sensor range. Still hovering on the edge, however. As Talia attempts to close in on the enemy fighter, her usual nag to StarOps Command about the A-Wing not being fast enough comes up again as she tries to boost towards whatever that was. "Sithspit... At this rate, I'll nae ever be able t' keep up with that thing." She punches her throttle to the max, shaking her head as she tries to get every erg of power out of her A-Wing. She mentions to her wingman, "Be advised, though I amnae certain, this may be a Bright. Repeat, this thing's faster than we are..." Incredibly annoying--not only to the pilot, but also her instruments. They fizzle and fuzzle, trying to get resolution for the ghost of a target at the very edge of their reach. Sometimes conditions are perfect, and they reach several metres further. A fraction of a second later, it's gone, and then appears as a ghost image behind her briefly--the signal attenuation doing weird things before the targetting computer realizes a tick later that that's not possible. Even as she loses more ground, Talia continues to try to catch a glimpse of what type of fighter she's dealing with, and her sensors still aren't up to the range, even as she loses a little more ground to what Talia now is almost certain must be an Imperial pilot. "Confirmed, whotever this is is at least one click faster than an A-Wing..." After all, there aren't many craft that are faster than an A-Wing... Catching it on signal is getting more and more difficult by degrees. The bogie squiggles on the edge of sensors, present for a tantalizing moment and then for several seconds... disappears. Completely. It's just long enough to drive a body to cursing. That's when the blip screams towards Talia at the exact rate of her current velocity, no more, no less. "That's odd..." says Talia into her comms, just before she gets a sensor reading on the blip coming at her... "Four, break port, break port!" As soon as she calls for her wing to break off, Talia dives into a barrel roll, apparently thinking to give her opponent more time to close up with her, and also more time for her to get a proper sensor reading before she's in firing range. "The way this thing moves, it has t' be a Bright..." Probably a very good idea to break at those speeds until one can comfirm just what's going on. Sensors can 'lie' a little about sizes or consider a cluster of, say MISSILES fired close together being one larger objct. That's before considering what the eye can do under stress. When she breaks off, the target stays at mostly the same distance. "... the deuce? Onyx, Four, are you seeing this? He's not moving anymore. Dead in the water!" Sure enough, the bogie has stopped completely. The blip squiggles just a little as she turns her craft. Could be a power fluctuation in her systems, the targets systems, or... just some finger grease on the display glass. Talia begins to focus her sensors on the target, but she doesn't even need to tighten the beam completely to know that it's a TIE Avenger. She's liable to have gotten pleeenty of experience with their sensor characteristics lately. As she notes the Avenger stopping dead in the water like that, Talia kicks her fighter into high speed once again, trying to get into range of the enemy fighter. She doesn't know why the fighter stopped, but the obsidian-hued one apparently doesn't want to let a chance like this get away from her. Her A-Wing speeds in, as the Noiri tries to claim yet another kill... Completely stopped, but not dead. Not with a power signature like that. Talia's wingman comes up on a supporting course. There aren't many reasons to just sit around like that. It speaks of confidence, arrogance, or maybe just some form of particularly vexxing malfunction. Slowly, the obsidian dart begins to twist in place towards the approaching A-wing. Talia continues to push herself at high speed, attempting to close in on the Imperial pilot as fast as she can, and she turns her targetting computer on, the new signature rather blatantly obvious as she tries to lock on to her target before it can get away again, and bring her on yet another merry goose chase. "Four, Three. Lasers hot, targetting on. Watch me backside." says she, spiralling around some debris as she heads for the Bright... Ten times the effective blaster range. Against a completely stationary target, it might be doable. There might even be energy left in the blast effect to do some damage. 250 targetting units is all it'll take. The TIE Avenger lines up on her, perhaps thinking the same thing, but then it does something strange. It cants and twists to match her orienation, so the two fighters are face to face. In very exaggerated movements the TIE twists left to right, left to right, almost like it's shaking its head. As Talia closes in, her acceleration kicking into high gear now, she aims for Jitt's fighter, and as soon as she gets tone, she fires, hoping to put another TIE pilot out of her misery, just before she snaprolls, her intent apparent: Avoid as much of the danger from a head-on confrontation as possible. It's something both the Avenger and the A-Wing are practically made for, and as her lasers are away, Talia keeps her eyes peeled for a return shot... The Avenger continues to twist side to side, almost taunting--and then just in the nick of time rockets off when one shake is finished. The chase is on again, with the TIE peeling away perpendicular to her approach. Taking the curve into account, however, he gains no particular ground. As she closes in, she notes her opponent hasn't fired on her yet, though she doesn't detect any damage on the Avenger... Talia finally puts two and two together, and comes up with, "This must be a recon flight... Have any of the rest of ye picked up on any other signatures?" She continues to try to slide into position, to try to take her prey before he can get away from her... The TIE is far from the placid thing that it was before. It's now bobbing around, changing angle, firing thrusters in bursts of speed followed by wild course changes. With the maneouvering required it's hard to hit him--and equally hard to keep him from creeping further away. As the TIE keeps inching further and further away, Talia is becoming more and more certain this is going to be another case of where her aging fighter design is going to come up short yet again, even as she tries to get closer. Taking more careful aim this time, she takes her shot, figuring it's unlikely she will have too much longer before her opponent does whatever it is he's planning to do. This time the bolts hit true. Shields flare brightly to dissipate the energy, doing a rather good job of it. Even so, the thin carapace is lazed, not grazed, and the TIE trails molten slag behind her. Caczyten focuses on just getting the devil out of here, wearing down the jump clock with whatever fancy maneuvering he can muster. Unfortunately for him, the progress bar for the calculation suddenly shrinks a good amount. D'oh. "I've got ye now!!!" says Talia, her grin widening as she gives up a little room in order to get a better shot. Again, she shoots, this time having some idea of how her target flies, and holds back... just enough for Caczyten to get clear of her firing range. "Poodoo!" says she...